


Just What I Needed

by 448opera



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Music, Orphan - Freeform, Other, Soprano, conservatoire, opera - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 20:14:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12328062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/448opera/pseuds/448opera
Summary: Christine Daaé is an orphaned, young, mediocre singer with operatic aspirations. Here is her journey, from Stockholm to Paris, from Paris to London, and into the soul of a deformed, depressed composer.





	Just What I Needed

_Una donna quindici anni_ \- no, too cute.

 _Deh Vieni?_ Again, very soubrette. Didn't Madame Valerius say she was more of a dramatic? She was sick of singing Susanna to all of her conservatoire auditions. 

 _A Je Ris_ from Faust- Christine hadn't studied this piece yet, but she already knew it by heart, having heard dozens of sopranos performing it in the past. She must've been around fifteen the very first time she heard it; the Stockholm National Opera had their annual open air concert, and her father had taken her to listen to the music. As a moody teenager, Christine was strangely all too moved by the exciting music, and that led her to beg her all-too-willing father, himself an accomplished (but amateur) violinist to sign her up for singing lessons.

 _That could be me_ , thought Christine. And when she was seventeen, and her father drove their little family - Christine, himself, and their cat Oskar - to the outskirts of Paris, in order to seek a change of scenery, she still tried to work hard on her voice. She joined every single theatre group and choir she could find, and barely made the cut every time. Christine had a natural, strong and radiant stage presence, only heightened by her extreme passion for classical music. But the one thing Christine lacked, especially in those early years, was musicality, intonation, aural skills; the basic things every good singer needs in order to become a professional. Her singing teacher, Cecile Valerius, and her retired husband (who also happened to be a celebrated bass singer in his day, now suffering from the early days of dementia) did the best they could, but Christine started learning music & singing so late that it wasn't an easy task. However, Christine was determined to work through her inability and shyness, and made a promise to her father that she would never stop pursuing her love of singing. 

Indeed, the day Oskar passed away was traumatic; and in about a month following that, she woke up to the tear-filled voice of Madame Valerius on the phone, telling her that Gustave, her father, had just suffered a stroke while at work. _Strokes at the age of 56 are not uncommon_ , Valerius would say. But being eighteen, and completely alone in the world, was a life-changing experience for Christine. She decided to bury her grief deep within herself. It took her about two years of further singing training for Christine to feel ready to audition for conservatoires throughout England. Yes, England, she thought, will be perfect. _Close enough to Papa's grave_ , but far still, just about. 

 

Royal College of Music - _we do not think you are ready for a course of this kind_.

Royal Academy of Music - _your voice still needs refinement._  

Hartt Conservatoire of Musical Arts - waitlist.

Mansfield Academy - no response.

 

Her final choice was the Loughton Academy of Music & the Arts, or LAMA, and it was a choice she had hardly considered. No significant graduates came out of this course, and it was also more expensive than the others, not being covered by any bursaries or student loans. It didn't have ties to the world's top opera houses like the other schools she was convinced she would get into; and a selfish, minor part of her, thought that going there would be worse than never studying opera at a professional level. And yet, it was the only school that accepted her, so she made it her sole purpose to raise some funds in order to support herself and her education.

 

She'd be turning 20 by the time the course commenced, already two years older than the majority of first year students, which increased her insecurities. She was less advanced and less experienced than most of them. Her voice had yet to catch up with her. 

 

 


End file.
